SAN MARCOS – All season long, the Temecula Valley girls soccer team has been able to overcome its many obstacles thanks to a stingy defense, an opportunistic offense and a team-first attitude from top to bottom.

In Tuesday’s first round of the Southern California Regional Championships, the Golden Bears ran into a team that had all three of those and more.

Temecula Valley went down by two goals midway through the first half and couldn’t master the challenge of the speedier San Marcos Knights, falling 3-0 to cap arguably the best soccer season in school history.

“The girls battled and came out hard,” Temecula Valley head coach Jennifer Guinn said. “I wish we could have connected a little more together and came out united more, but we had great moments. We came out in the second half and played a much better match.”

In the program’s first trip to the Southern California Regionals, the Golden Bears (23-5-2) went down in the 25th minute when San Marcos forward Olivia Barger buried a shot in the back of the net from 13 yards out. The Knights (21-1-4) struck again just two minutes later when Camille Nosewicz scored following a poor defensive clear.

“I’ve been trying to get into our psyche: as soon as you score you keep pushing,” San Marcos head coach Daniel McKell said. “You get excited, you get hungry for it. This is maybe the fifth time this season we’ve gotten that second goal right away. We were very fortunate it happened again for us.”

The Golden Bears pushed the ball forward and had more shots in the second half but couldn’t convert. The hosts added a third goal against freshman goalkeeper Hazel Underwood in the 50thminute when Batya Bagully converted from eight yards out. Hazelwood had an outstanding kick save in the first half and made a pair of nice saves in the second to keep Temecula Valley in the match.

“(The second goal) changed the momentum and gave them more of the attack, but we kept our heads up and kept pushing,” Golden Bears senior midfielder Alex Vehlow said. “I’m so proud of our team from preseason to CIF we never got down and never gave up. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

It was also the final match for UCSB commit Christine Maurer, who finished her career with 78 goals.

“We weren’t connecting our passes and our offense wasn’t playing like we usually play,” Maurer said. “But the whole season we played for each other. I’m really proud of our team. At the beginning of the season I knew we could make it far but making it this far was amazing.”

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